Surefire Saint headlamp? (Part 2)

Re: So I bought a SF Saint (NOT Minimus) today

Hugo2x said:
I love seeing proper flashlights in brick and mortar store. So far all i've ever found is SF and Streamlight. I would freak out if I saw some Fenix's or Nitecores sitting in a display case.
Click to expand...

I was in a Fry's today and noticed that they had some Fenixes in stock along with the usual hordes of Maglights and LED Lensers. LD01, 10 and 20! Also saw some in a surplus store, along with a big selection of Surefires.
 
yowzer said:
The Saint I played with had a nice white beam. The LED tint lottery is alive and well with whatever SF's using (SSC?). For what it costs, if you don't like the tint, I'd exchange it for another until you get it right.
Click to expand...

I would think for the price Surefire charges for their lights, they could and should be a lot more picky in choosing the LED's they ensconce in their goods.

This kind of sloppiness is going to catch up to, and hurt Surefire.

WAKE UP SUREFIRE!!!!
 
joema said:
I have a Minimus and T1A, and an quite dissapointed in the Minimus beam. It's quite greenish/yellow, with significant artifacts. See below images, taken with identical camera settings and fixed white balance.

Distance to white wall: 1 meter

These were captured as RAW on a Nikon D300 and converted to high quality jpg. Color-wise they mostly match the visual impression. No post processing except for slight cropping to center the beam.

Unlike many CPF'ers, I'm not very sensitive to tint. However in this case it's quite extreme. To the eye, the T1A beam pattern looks better than the pictures, and the Minimus looks worse than the pictures.

The Minimus beam has distinct dark square artifacts, probably the projected emitter die. I'm not a "white all hunter" and accept no beam is perfect. But the Minimus beam is such poor quality it's distracting to use. My less expensive Princeton Tec Apex Pro has a much better beam.

If this is typical of the Saint/Minimus beam, I'd suggest getting the T1A.

Surefire T1A:


Surefire Minimus:
Click to expand...


I don't like it, not one bit. If I ever get a Saint I will go to a B&M shop and try before I buy.
 
My PT Rebel EOS has a better beam and tint and I paid only 34 bucks. I mean they spend YEARS on this. Delay after delay.....Just sayin.....😱
 
Pics of the Saint...

Well I finally found that my thread had been merged with this one. A courtesy PM might have been nice... Anyway, I know better pictures have been posted, but here are some of my Saint.

P1011398.jpg


P1011405.jpg


P1011406.jpg


P1011401.jpg


I am very impressed with the construction quality. Parts are HA-BK aluminum and parts appear to be Nitrolon, of which I am a big fan. The entire battery pack is the Nitrolon type material and looks and feels very tough. Here are a few poorly taken beam shots.

Low (~1 lumen)
P1011410.jpg


Medium (~10 lumens)
P1011411.jpg


High (~100 lumens)
P1011412.jpg


The low shot looks quite bluish, but I can't say it looks like that in real life. There also appears to be very little difference between medium and high, but again, that is not accurate. I don't have a very nice camera and my skills aren't up to par, so maybe that has something to do with it. Because of the lens, the outline of the die can be seen in the beam on a white wall, but I have not noticed it in real use. I will be able to post more impressions after a few weekends of using it while camping. Hope somebody finds this helpful.
 
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tpchan said:
Received my Saint Minimus today, and I'm happy with it. In case it hasn't yet been answered in this thread, the Minimus seems to work just fine with a rechargeable 16340 as long as you have a small magnet to put on the positive end to make a firm contact with the light. I used an AW IMR 16340 and the Minimus is working fine with it. Same as the SureFire T1A for working with 16340 cells.
Click to expand...

This battery will work in the Saint box as well? I'm not up on the rechargeables.
 
Ordered a Saint. I'll see if I can figure out any recharge options down the road. I'm going to use it for winter commuting on a cyclocross bike. No high speed technical riding. If the beam is as bright as my old L2 it should work for the purpose. Plus, I can take it camping in the Minimus configuration.
 
Got my Saint yesterday.

The beam is a little uggly around the edges when white wall hunting, and the colour isn't the nicest on it's lower settings, but... I took it outside last night and you know what? It's fantastic once your actually using the thing.

Bright lights up an area bigger than my back yard with lots of flood. Low is plenty enough for finding your way around. Haven't tried reading with it yet so I'm no sure how good it will be for this, might do that tonight.

The form factor is very good, UI is good, but I'd prefer a more positive click to the off position, just to be sure.

Haven't tried it in minimus set up yet. So far I'm happy with it.
 
I'm definitely not happy with mine. I sent it back to Surefire, below is a beam shot of the "fixed" unit. It's hard to capture photographically the exact visual appearance. However this image is a rough approximation of how it appears under some conditions. Under other conditions, it's not this bad, in others it's worse.

Sometimes the dark inclusions in the beam pattern are so significant it interferes with use as an illumination tool.

E.g, today I was looking for some stains on my carpet -- I often couldn't tell if the streaks and spots were on the carpet or just dark regions of the Minimus beam pattern. I finally gave up and used a headlamp with a higher quality beam pattern.

 
Is the lens in the Saint more of a Aspheric or TIR optic?

It's typical for aspherics to have color change and artifacts in the beam from the center to the outer areas.

But TIR should be much more uniform than aspheric.

That said, I have a Saint on it's way. I played around with one at a store, and was very impressed with it's fit and finish and the rotary UI.

I use a headlamp more for up close work, but I needed a bit more throw and runtime than my Zebralight.

-Ed
 
joema said:
I'm definitely not happy with mine. I sent it back to Surefire, below is a beam shot of the "fixed" unit. It's hard to capture photographically the exact visual appearance. However this image is a rough approximation of how it appears under some conditions. Under other conditions, it's not this bad, in others it's worse.

Sometimes the dark inclusions in the beam pattern are so significant it interferes with use as an illumination tool.

E.g, today I was looking for some stains on my carpet -- I often couldn't tell if the streaks and spots were on the carpet or just dark regions of the Minimus beam pattern. I finally gave up and used a headlamp with a higher quality beam pattern.

Click to expand...

BRUTAL,what else can you say.:shrug: :thumbsdow:thumbsdow:thumbsdow
 
Surefire minimus

Can this be reversed? So that the switch would be on the left side for a left handed person. Not easy being a southpaw in a right handed world.
 
Re: Surefire minimus

I'm not quite sure how the mount works, but could you just flip it upside down?
 
Re: Surefire minimus

All you need to do it put it on the way round you prefer.
I suppose that would mean the headband logos are upside down but you can remove it and put it back on the other way.
 
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